Dreaming

McCarthy ( Buffalo Girls ) issues a comely rhyming invitation to bedtime through the metaphor of a small, shaggy dog beckoned to drift in a little boat through the ``mizzle and moonmist'' of a tranquil ocean night. Watercolor and pen-and-ink illustrations acknowledge preschoolers' taste for benign adventure: dolphins frolic with the dog's white cap before courteously dropping it back into the boat; the moon's an intimate; nighttime clouds ravel intriguingly into cats and bones. When morning brings an end to his adventure, the dog rides his dream swells back to his waiting basket, and a small boy comes to help him enjoy the sun. The calmly reassuring, brief verse suggests that dreams are sweet and that dark nights end. Ages 3-up. (May)